听播客学英语 266 雄鹿和母鸡

 　　Kevin’s friend George is getting married to Sharon. A week before the wedding, George invites his friends to a stag party. They start in a pub¹, and then go on to a club where there is deafening² music and they all drink too much.

　　The next day, Kevin feels dreadful³. He has a hang-over. In fact, he has the mother of all hangovers, with a pounding headache and a sick feeling in his stomach.

　　The telephone rings. Joanne, Kevin’s girlfriend, answers it. It is Kevin’s boss, who wants to know why Kevin is not at work. “He’s feeling a bit UNDER THE WEATHER”, explains Joanne. “He’ll be in tomorrow”.

　　The expression “under the weather” means⁴ “not very well” – not seriously ill, just not very well. If I have a slight cold, or I am feeling a bit depressed⁵, for example, I might say that I am “under the weather”.

　　Now Kevin, of course, feels like death. So when Joanne says that he is “a bit under the weather”, she is UNDERSTATING how bad he is.

　　To understate something is to say less about it than you really mean. For example, you might say that someone is “a bit annoyed”, when in reality they are very angry. Or on the hottest day of the summer, you might say that it is “a little bit warm”.

　　To return to Kevin. He spends the day with his eyes closed complaining about how awful he feels. Joanne is unsympathetic. “It’s his own fault for drinking too much”, she says. That evening, Joanne gets ready to go out. “Where are you going?” asks Kevin weakly. “To Sharon’s hen party. Go back to bed”.

　　A vocabulary note. A stag party, or a stag night, is a party given by a man about to get married for his male friends. A hen party is given by a woman about to get married for her girl friends. The guests at these parties often drink too much and do outrageous⁶ things. I never go to them, of course.

　　The music today is called a Russian Morning After Party, by Ozovoniy Sloy from Siberia. I can’t understand the words since I do not speak Russian, but it sounds like a good party.

1 pub   

n.[英]旅馆，小店，酒馆

参考例句：

• He is the landlord of this pub.他是这家酒店的店主。
• They saw that four large men marched into the pub.他们看到四个彪形大汉走进了酒吧。

2 deafening   

adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The noise of the siren was deafening her. 汽笛声震得她耳朵都快聋了。
• The noise of the machine was deafening. 机器的轰鸣声震耳欲聋。

3 dreadful   

adj.糟透了的，极端的，可怕的，令人畏惧的

参考例句：

• I cannot imagine what to do in this dreadful situation.我不能想像在这么糟的情况下该怎么办。
• I must apologize for the dreadful mistake I made.我为我所犯的严重错误深表歉意。

4 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

5 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

6 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。